82% Of Skokie COVID-19 Cases Recovering, 112 Residents Remain Ill

SKOKIE, IL — The number of new coronavirus cases among Skokie residents declined last week for the second week in a row, while the number of residents admitted to local hospitals with COVID-19 fell to its lowest level in three months, according to village staff.

For the week ending Monday, there were 45 new COVID-19 cases detected among residents of the village, down from 90 the week before, Skokie Health Department data showed.

Only three residents were admitted to the hospital last week, down from a high of 23 in the first week of April, according to the health department. The percentage of coronavirus tests that come back positive was also on the decline, with just 6 percent of specimens testing positive.

Nearly 700 of the 845 residents with confirmed cases have either recovered or are recovering, a rate of 82 percent. Skokie village officials have yet to respond to a request for information about how its health department defines recovered cases, but any explanation provided will be added here.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reports the statewide recovery rate is 92 percent. The agency defines anyone who is still alive 42 days after testing positive as a recovered case, according to its website. In neighboring Evanston, the municipal health department counts people as recovered when they are out of the hospital and not in isolation, according to its health director.

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Since mid-March, 29 Skokie residents have died of COVID-19-related causes, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. The youngest was a 31-year-old woman who died in mid-April, while the oldest was a 99-year-old woman who died last week. Both had underlying health conditions, according to the medical examiner.

Half of the Skokie residents to die have been older than 80 years old. Four residents in their 70s, four people in their 60s, two men in their 50s without listed underlying conditions and a 48-year-old woman with a chronic degenerative disease are also among those that succumbed to the virus.

One out of every four Skokie residents over the age of 80 who have tested positive for COVID-19 have died, according to data from the village and county.

"Although COVID-19 continues to spread in Skokie, it is in a controlled way, which means that area hospitals are not overwhelmed," according to the village's website. "The number of deaths would be much higher if area hospitals were overwhelmed."

On Friday, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported the following provisional coronavirus data from Skokie nursing homes:

Lieberman Geriatric Center — 20 cases, 2 deaths
The Grove of Skokie — 26 cases, 4 deaths
Alden Northshore — 3 cases, 1 death
Citadel of Skokie — 0 cases, 0 deaths

Last week, Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty said his city had a lower per capita infection rate than Skokie or Chicago, with 156 confirmed cases per 10,000 residents in Chicago, 125 in Skokie and 90 in Skokie. As of Tuesday, Evanston has had 51 COVID-19 related deaths and a total of 728 confirmed cases. At least 27 residents of Evanston nursing homes have died from complications of the virus, state public health officials announced last week.

North Cook County suburbs other than Evanston and Skokie are handled by the Cook County Department of Public Health, which reported the following number of confirmed cases for incorporated areas as of Tuesday:

Glencoe — 25 cases, 0 deaths
Winnetka — 72 cases, 2 deaths
Wilmette — 142 cases, 6 deaths
Lincolnwood — 148 cases, 23 deaths
Prospect Heights — 234 cases, 3 deaths
Morton Grove — 262 cases, 13 deaths
Park Ridge — 289 cases, 37 deaths
Northbrook — 294 cases, 34 deaths
Glenview — 474 cases, 38 deaths
Wheeling — 717 cases, 34 deaths
Niles — 752 cases, 100 deaths
Des Plaines — 1495 cases, 79 deaths

The number of fatalities is provided by the medical examiner's office.

As for those who live north of Lake Cook Road, Illinois Department of Public Health officials have refused to identify the ages, sex, date of death and hometowns of Lake County residents whose deaths have been classified as COVID-19-related in response to a request under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

Lisa Reynolds, an acting FOIA officer for the agency, claimed health privacy laws prevent the release of the information — despite the fact such data has been released on a daily basis by Cook County officials.

This article originally appeared on the Skokie Patch